Resistance
by Iknowyoulovemexoxo
Summary: When you go on a blind date you don't expect to need rescuing. If your rescuer then turns up wherever you are does that make him your hero, a stalker . . . or your husband?
1. Chapter 1

I had zero plans to start a new story and I tried to resist it but this idea just wouldn't go away so I had to write it. The good news is that it won't be very long, if people want me to continue it. I hope you enjoy it :) By the way, I am using some creative license with WWE history.

* * *

It was nearly six-thirty and Stephanie was battling to get her dress over the rollers in her hair when her cell phone began to ring. She quickly yanked her dress down and scrambled to grab he phone, "Yes?"

"Stephanie, are you ready?"

She balanced the phone between her ear and her shoulder as she fixed one of the rollers that she had almost pulled out in her rush to get to the phone, "No Shane I'm not. I have an hour before I have to be there so I am currently about to finish off my hair and make-up."

He was getting a strong sense of irritation from his younger sister, "I was really just calling to see if you were going to go tonight."

"Well I did tell your wife that I would go when she called me earlier and I did tell you yesterday that I would do it. Now you promise me that he is a good guy who doesn't have a girlfriend?"

Relief flooded his body to know that she wasn't going to pull out of this, "You may have said that you would do it but I wasn't sure, you have had a habit of skipping out on blind dates at the last minute. He is a good guy though, he's single, he has a good job and he has no idea what the hell the WWE is so you're good."

The guy didn't know what the WWE was? It was certainly surprising to hear as it seemed like everybody she came across had at least heard of it and had a vague idea of what it was but it was a pleasant surprise. Pulling out the seat in front of her vanity table she sat down to do her make-up, "I will hold you to all of that you know. I need to finish getting ready if I'm going to be on time so leave me alone. Bye Shane."

"Bye Steph, have fun."

Her phone was swapped for her mascara as she began to apply it to begin putting the finishing touches to her look for the evening.

Little black dresses were created for nights like tonight where you had to go out but you didn't know what you were going to be faced with. As she walked into the restaurant she was a little surprised by how upmarket it was, if it had been her choice she would have definitely picked something a little less . . . she racked her brain trying to think of the exact word to use to describe it that was not insulting of his choice.

Being escorted through the restaurant to reach the table allowed her an opportunity to look around her. She was able to check it out until as she came face to face with her date for the evening, when she did she knew exactly what the word she had been missing earlier was, stuffy, she would have picked something less stuffy but as she looked at his expensive looking suit and fake looking smile he fit right in there. Plastering a smile on her face she was going to give him the benefit of the doubt as looks could be deceiving, "Daniel?"

He stood up to greet her not disguising himself as he looked her up and down, she may just be a way to get what he actually wanted but she wasn't hard on the eyes. His eyes met hers returning her smile as he held his hand out towards her, "It's nice to meet you Stephanie, your brother has told me a little about you but he certainly never mentioned that you were so beautiful."

She had watched as he leered at her and now his fake compliment on top was making her feel nauseous, "Shall we sit down?"

Relief washed over her as almost the second she was seated a drinks list was thrust into her hand, she most certainly needed this tonight and quickly if she was going to survive, "I will just take a glass of red wine please. I am sure you have plenty to choose from and you have far more knowledge than I do so just pick me something tasty and reasonably priced please."

Once their drinks order had been taken Daniel focussed on the woman in front of him, "So tell me about yourself Stephanie."

It was such a cliché to be asked to do that, everybody did it and she was looking for something different, "I work as part of my family's business and I love every minute of it."

"What part of the business do you work in? The television side or the office side?"

Her eyes widened as she looked at him, had he really just admitted within the first five minutes of meeting her that he knew what she did and all about the WWE? So much for her brother saying that he knew nothing about the business, "I didn't think you knew anything about the WWE?"

Oh shit, he had completely forgotten that he had told her brother that he knew nothing and now he had to cover, "Uh, I kind of told your brother that because I thought that if he knew that I knew about the WWE then he'd think I was a crazy fan and wouldn't set us up. Please will you forgive me?" That sounded plausible, he hoped that she bought it.

It did sound possible, she knew that her brother was protective but she also wasn't somebody to date a fan. The decision was difficult but she decided to give him the benefit of the doubt, "Only if there is no more business talk, I have enough of that during the day."

"Okay, I can do that" He would spend some time not talking about the business but later on he would ask what he wanted to know, he wasn't wasting his time or money on another date with her.

Stephanie tried to relax around him but there was just something that was keeping her on edge. She was that on edge that when Daniel left to use the restroom the waiter approached her, "I'm sorry to bother you Miss but is everything okay? You look really tense and nervous. If there are any problems then we can call the cops for you."

She felt bad that he thought that something was that seriously wrong but it wasn't, was it? Her Mom had always told her to listen to her gut but he wouldn't have a problem with her saying no at the end of the night right? Anxiously looking around to make sure that he wasn't on his way back she then turned and smiled at the waiter, "It's okay, I'm okay thanks. My gut is telling me that this won't work out but I will be fine. Thank you for asking and caring."

He didn't believe her that she was okay but unless a fight broke out it was none of his business, "If you say so Miss. If your feelings on the matter change I am around. I'm sure that you will be fine but, if something happens and you are in desperate need of help to get out of here quickly ask me what time we close, I'll know to cause a distraction so that you can escape."

A genuine smile crossed her lips when he said that, she had more feelings for her waiter than she did her date, "Thank you, I appreciate it." Seeing her date approaching she needed to find an excuse as to why the waiter had been standing there for so long as he was nearly back at the table, "I know that I am being a pain but I don't want to get drunk as I haven't eaten a lot but I would like another drink. Do you have any other suggestions please?"

Out of the corner of his eye he saw the gentleman slip into his seat, "Personally I'm partial to a bit of orange juice, everybody thinks I'm crazy but if you mix it with some soda it's delicious."

"I'll take it, thank you."

Politely nodding his head the waiter left them at the table to retrieve her drink.

She could feel his eyes on her and it made her incredibly uncomfortable, they hadn't even received their main course yet and she was desperate to get out of there.

Daniel could sense that he was losing her attention so wanted to try to bring her back to him, "What is your ideal date? I know that women have like these ideals and it tells us men a lot about you."

Her ideal date was currently anywhere but here, she didn't think that he would receive that very well though. When you don't want somebody to know about you you lie, as a part-time 'actress' she should be able to pull this off, "My ideal date involves a quiet dinner, just me and my date, and after dinner we will just sit and talk getting to know each other finding out quirky little details." Okay so that was slightly closer to the truth than she intended but it didn't matter, he wouldn't get an opportunity at giving her her ideal date, "What is your ideal date?"

He had to be grateful to her for giving him the opening to finally reveal his real reason for asking her out, "Hmm, I think I would have to say that my ideal date would be me and Nikki Bella alone somewhere. I don't suppose you want to make that come true for me by giving me her number do you?" He winked at her to make it seem like he was joking so that she didn't get angry with him.

When you're on a date and that person says that their ideal date was with somebody else, not only that but they want you to set it up for them, it wasn't a good thing in Stephanie's mind. She tried to decide if he was just joking around or serious by his facial expression but he wasn't giving anything away, "Ha ha, that's a good one."

"I'm serious, I would love to have her number so can I?"

Their main course was placed in front of them allowing her a chance to think. Did she cut her losses and leave now or did she try to change the subject and at least get to eat something more before she left him? The one thing that was for certain was that her brother would be told in no uncertain terms that he was never to set her up on a date ever again as he failed miserably at it. Cutting into her salmon she deliberately stayed silent as she didn't know what to say to him.

They ate most of their main course in silence before Daniel had had enough and decided to speak up, "If you are worried about her finding out how I got her number I promise that I won't tell her that it was you."

"It isn't that I care how she would feel about you getting her number because I won't give it to you, ever. I just can't believe that you have the nerve to ask me out and then so blatantly tell me that you didn't want to go out with me at all, you simply want Nikki Bella's number. I respect the privacy of everybody that works with the WWE and I would never pass out somebody's number without their permission so you're out of luck."

There was a look that flashed across his face that made her stomach turn in fear. She quickly finished the remaining two mouthfuls of her dinner and then delicately wiped at her mouth with napkin placing it back on the table, "Thank you for my meal. I would say that this evening has been a pleasure but it really hasn't. Don't ever contact me or my brother again, goodbye."

He sat there flustered for a moment just watching her leave before he quickly flagged down a server to pay the cheque.

Stephanie hurried out of the restaurant and made her way down the street just putting some distance between herself and the restaurant. As she walked down the street she pulled her cell phone from her purse to text her brother to vent her frustration:

 _Thank you so much for setting me up on the worst date ever._

Keeping her phone in her hands as she walked she was really disappointed that she had wasted her evening when she could have done so much with it.

He practically threw the money at the server as soon as the bill was put in front of him, he refused to give up like that and would get the number from her. Daniel weaved around the tables as he hurried out of the restaurant. When he reached outside he looked around for Stephanie eventually spotting somebody who he hoped was her in the distance. Brushing himself down he didn't want to draw attention to himself as he set off on a fast walk to catch up with her.

When her brother replied she was insulted to think that he thought that she was being picky:

 _You really think that I am being picky? How about u go out with someone who tells u that Dwayne is their ideal date & want his number, then tell me how it feels_

Her mind was slightly distracted after her dealings with both her supposed date and her brother when all of a sudden somebody yanked on her arm pulling her into an alley between two buildings. She blinked rapidly trying to adjust to the sudden darkness that she was bathed in. Quickly turning to see who they were she spun around when the dark figure brushed past her putting themself between the road and her. As her eyes adjusted she saw who it was, "Daniel? I have said everything I could possibly want to say to you already." She wanted out of there and fast so she held her head high and went to walk past him.

As she went to walk past him he grabbed her arm and pulled her back, "You're not leaving yet, we aren't done here." He was so angry at her for trying to walk away from him that he pulled his arm back and punched her in the face sending her sprawling across the floor.

When he pulled her back and proceeded to punch her she screamed as she stumbled falling to the floor. Her phone flew out of her hand as she landed on her back smacking her head on the hard concrete floor and she began to see stars.

Quickly mounting her he placed his hands on her arms holding them to the floor, "Have you changed your mind yet? All it takes is giving me one number and it will all be over."

Her head was throbbing in so many places and the world was spinning but she began to struggle beneath him, "Get off me."

All of a sudden somebody came from behind knocking him off her, "Quick, get up and grab your stuff."

Scrambling to a seated position she grabbed her head as it swam even faster and she saw double, "Fuck." She shuffled a little backwards reaching around blindly for her phone until her vision cleared enough that she could see two of things not blurs and she could finally turn around and look for her phone. It took her a moment but she finally located her phone and she stood up, "I don't know who you are but thank you."

He reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet pressing his knee a little harder against the throat of the guy flailing beneath him, flicking through the few notes in his wallet he pulled out a twenty and held it out to her, "Take this and get in the first cab you find and get yourself either to a hospital or to a friend or family member's house. You need to get yourself checked out or at the very least you need somebody to watch over you because of your head."

She slowly climbed to her feet, "I can't take your money but I'll be fine on my own, don't worry."

"No, no. You must do as I say, I speak from experience. Please do it for me."

The pleading look that she could make out in his eyes was too much for her heart to take tonight, "Fine, I will take a cab home." She could afford the cab on her own so went to walk away, or stumble apparently as she nearly landed face first on the ground again, "Thank you for this, you are a true gentleman."

"Money, take the money and don't spend the night alone." There was something about her that told him that she was full of pride which was why she was hadn't taken the money so far so when she reached and after a couple of tries took the money from his outstretched hand he breathed a sigh of relief, "Thank you. Take care of your head and be careful."

Crumpling the note in her hand she looked briefly at Daniel on the floor whose face was a bright shade of red as he clawed at the stranger's leg. As she focussed on putting one foot in front of the other she couldn't help but think how her night had taken such a strange turn, she was beginning to regret getting out of bed today as the throbbing in her head set in for the night. Stephanie quickly thrust her hand out as she saw a cab passing grateful when it stopped allowing her to climb in the back, now to go home and go to bed and hope that when she woke up next it had all been a dream.

As soon as the woman had left he turned to the guy whose larynx he was currently crushing, "Do you have a good excuse for what you just did to her?"

Daniel frantically shook his head trying to get him to move his knee, he was too young to die as he hadn't gone out on a date with Nikki Bella yet.

Reluctantly he backed off removing his knee from the guy's throat, "If you try any of this shit again I **will** personally hunt you down and hurt you."

He couldn't help but wonder who did this guy think he was? Stupid meat head, "You really think that you will be able to find me out of all of the people in the country? You're stupider than you look." He had barely stood up before he was backed against the wall with an arm pressing against his already dry and sore throat.

Holding him against the wall he went straight for the wallet in the guy's jacket pocket and pulled it out easily flipping it open, "Daniel Ford. Yeah, I don't know who you are do I? Do yourself a favour and stay away from her and every other woman in the country." He tossed the wallet on the floor beside him before he threw the guy down on the floor with it, "Nice meeting you."

As he exited the alley he looked around to make sure that the woman he had just rescued was nowhere in sight before he went to get himself some dinner. It was such a shame that he had met the woman like he had, she was actually incredibly beautiful and under any other circumstance he would have asked for her number. Running his hand over his head as he walked down the street he couldn't help but think about her and hope that she was okay.

Stephanie all but crawled through her front door, the cab driver had insisted on making sure that she got in alright which was nice but just stifling. She practically slammed the front door behind her leaning on it for support as she flicked the locks. Once the door was locked she kicked off her high heels and attempted to bend down to pick them up but quickly stopped when the room began to spin again, "They can wait." Slowly making her way straight to her bedroom she dropped her bag on the nearest surface and then undid the zip on her dress letting it pool on the floor around her feet, stepping out of it she left it where it was and just collapsed into bed in her lingerie. She would clean up tomorrow but for now she needed to sleep, without painkillers as she wasn't sure if she should take them right now.

Sat on the cold floor with his wallet in his hand Daniel was not impressed, he was so close to getting the number and he would have had it if that meat head hadn't interfered, "Soon Stephanie, soon."


	2. Chapter 2

It was the morning after the night before and as she opened her eyes to stare at the ceiling she knew immediately that the previous night had not been a dream as her head was thumping. Slowly sitting up she threw the covers back and climbed out of bed to use the bathroom and to take some painkillers for her headache. In her quest to reach the bathroom she used the wall for support, pausing briefly to carefully bend down to pick up her dress from the night before she slowly stood back up once she had it in her hand before she walked the rest of the short distance to the en-suite.

Stephanie was relieved when she entered the bathroom, tossing her dress into the laundry basket in the corner of the room. She shuffled to the sink and opened the cabinet searching through it for the painkillers wincing as she fumbled with the bottle and dropped it into the sink. As she shut the cabinet door she finally got a look at herself in a mirror and gasped, last night was the furthest thing from a dream judging by the bruise around her eye.

Maybe the bruise was smudged mascara? Turning on the faucet she ran her facecloth under the water before slowly raising it to her face and gently started to dab at the blackness. The second she touched her face she hissed and dropped the facecloth, maybe she should have waited to clean her face until after she had taken some painkillers they kicked in.

She shut off the faucet to go and get herself something to eat to go along with the painkillers she had just taken. As soon as she had folded the facecloth and put it to the side she slowly made her way out of the bathroom and downstairs to the kitchen. The good news was that her head wasn't spinning as fast but it was thumping but that would all pass soon as soon as she managed to take the painkillers and they kicked in.

After making herself some toast she sat down at the island to eat it in silence so she could reflect. It was funny how she knew that the date was wrong from the moment that she had walked into the restaurant, if only she had known exactly how 'wrong' the date would go she would have been able to avoid the literal headache that she had.

His Friday night had been an adventure, it could have gone so very wrong but for Paul he had done what he thought was the right thing and luckily for him he had worked out for the best, he just hoped the woman that he had saved was okay. When he thought about how he had found her and the way that she had stumbled away from him he almost wanted to call the local hospitals to make sure that she hadn't collapsed, he knew that he was being dramatic so didn't but it didn't help that he could just not shake the bad feeling that he had.

Paul gathered together his things and began to pack them in his suitcase. He had to leave for the airport in an hour and he still hadn't finished packing, he was meant to finish it last night but in the end he hadn't bothered so now he was running late. With barely ten minutes to spare he had managed to pack and tidy up his apartment so when his Mom inevitably checked up on it when he was away he wouldn't get a lecture.

Stephanie finished her breakfast before she made her way back upstairs to the bathroom to have a long hot shower, the painkillers had finally kicked in and she was feeling slightly more alive.

Thirty minutes later and she was finally out of the shower. Stood in front of the mirror in her bedroom dressed only in a towel she stared at the reflection looking back at her, the bruise that she had thought, well really hoped, was smudged mascara really was a bruise and would be such a wonderful talking point if anybody saw it. Luckily for Stephanie she had roughly two days for it to magically disappear and failing that it would hopefully be less painful by Monday morning and she could cover it with make-up

After she had dressed she rifled through her bag looking for her phone having stuffed it in there whilst in the cab on the ride home. When she finally got hold of it and removed it she wasn't surprised to see a text from her brother, if he wasn't finally apologising she would disown him today:

 _When you put it like that I sincerely apologise. I genuinely believed him when he said that he knew nothing, sorry baby sis. Love you._

She couldn't help but smile a little at his text, he was definitely grovelling and was probably desperate for her not to tell their Mom and Dad because if they found out then he would be dead meat.

Her plan to make him sweat a little longer was derailed when her phone beeped in her hand:

 _Steph please tell me that you have forgiven me. Mom & Dad will kill me for not being more careful & I'm too young to die._

 _I thought that too but that nearly happened last night._ She quickly deleted the text that on reflex she wrote in anger. If she told him what Daniel had done he would either want to kill him or be here Mothering her and neither option she wanted so she had to be more thoughtful with her response to him:

 _We're both too young to die, remember that next time you want to rat me out to them :-P It's okay, I forgive you, I just went to bed early to forget it happened_

Once she had sent him a text to hopefully make him calm down she decided to go and relax on the couch for a few hours and then do laundry and other productive stuff if her head was up to it.

The second that he saw his sister Shane knew that something was off with her, "What did you do? You look different." Opening his arms for a hug he was surprised when she put her hand up and instead went to hug their Dad.

Vince couldn't help but laugh as he wrapped his arms around his daughter hugging her tightly, "Good morning Princess. So what is going on with you and your brother this morning?"

As they parted from the hug she smiled sweetly, "Just your regular brother/sister argument. I'll forgive him later if he's lucky."

It was so typical of his children despite their age but he wouldn't change them. Looping his arm through his daughter's he pulled her towards the plane, "Come on you two, before I start asking for details or putting you in time out."

She was so grateful to her Dad for not forcing her to explain, she wasn't ready to explain to him why her brother was her least favourite person and she also didn't want to have to explain why her make-up was thick.

When she had a chance to next look at her watch she realised that her day was nearly over. She had literally not stopped all day, her meals had consisted of a sandwich that she had eaten on the run and a couple of pieces of fruit here and there.

Stephanie took a moment to lean against the wall and check through the papers she had in her hands to see if she had missed something, well that was the plan but instead she got distracted thinking about Daniel having just worked with Nikki Bella on her segment. So absorbed in her thoughts she failed to hear her brother coming towards her until he tapped her on the shoulder at which point she screamed in fright and pulled away.

Sometimes he loved playing practical jokes on his sister more than pretty much everything in the world but not when he got that reaction. Shane tentatively reached out to put his hand on her arm, "Steph? Are you okay? I did call your name but you seemed to be on another planet so I just thought I'd tap your shoulder, I didn't mean to scare you."

Her heart felt like it was going to beat out of her chest as she was so scared, it wasn't just the fact that he had given her a fright that had her heart beating wildly but the thought that Daniel might not be done with her. She used her free hand to push the stray hairs out of her face as she tried to compose herself, "I'm sorry. I have been so busy with work today and I guess I'm just tired and distracted."

It was hard for him to not see exactly how exhausted she was, especially with the black bags beginning to show under her eyes . . . or one eye, "I was actually coming to see if you wanted a lift back to the hotel tonight? Dad said that if we could learn to be friends again we could get off early to work it out. I did think about telling him that we weren't really fighting but then I realised we could get off early so changed my mind."

A smile came to her face as she listened to her brother talk, it was so him to do anything for an early night, "Sure, that would be nice. Let me just finish this off and get my stuff and then I'll meet you here in say ten minutes?"

"Works for me."

The two siblings parted to do the final few things they had left before they went back to the hotel.

Forty-five minutes later and they had finally arrived at the hotel, it should have taken them a maximum of thirty minutes in total from when they first spoke but despite saying they could go early Vince had another job for them both to do first.

Shutting off the engine Shane sat back in his seat, "I'm so glad that day is over. The sooner Dad finalises your grand debut storyline the better for my sanity as he is driving me insane. I am now going to call room service to order dinner and then call my wife to moan to her about how much he is annoying me and I would suggest that you go to bed and get some sleep as black bags under your eyes really aren't a good look."

As soon as he mentioned black bags under her eyes she panicked and quickly pulled down the visor to look in the mirror and gulped seeing that he make-up hadn't stayed very well underneath her eye. After pushing the visor back up she hoped he couldn't see the rest of the black eye, "I will definitely be getting an early night I promise."

The two of them climbed out of the car and headed inside with their bags.

After checking into the hotel Shane accompanied his sister to her room, "Will you be okay now?"

Being a big girl and having dealt with what was probably a concussion all by herself she was pretty sure she was going to be okay in a hotel room all by herself for the evening. She rolled her eyes at her brother as she leant against the wall, "I will be fine all by myself. I am going to get some dinner and then I am going to go to bed so feel free to go and call your wife and order your room service and leave me the hell alone."

"Wow, no need to be mean to me Steph." He pulled his sister off the wall and hugged her tightly, "Are you sure you're going to be okay by yourself? You have been really off all weekend and although my wife has told me not to worry I have."

She playfully rolled her eyes again, she had been off all weekend because she had been dealing with everything after her date, both mentally and physically, but she wasn't a victim then and she wasn't about to make herself one now. "I'm fine. I am a big girl and can be left in a hotel room all by myself, I promise."

She did seem like she was being honest with him so maybe his worries were just him being overprotective, "If you need me call me, I'm literally only a few doors away. I love you and goodnight." He would wait until she opened the door to leave her.

"You know I love you Shane, even when you're being so overprotective I want to strangle you. Send my love and sympathies to Riss and I'll see you tomorrow." She leant forward and pressed a quick kiss to his cheek before she used her key to open her door, "Night Shane."

The siblings parted as Stephanie entered the room and closed the door and he went to his own room for the evening.

As soon as she was inside she dropped her bags on the floor and pulled out her make-up bag, she was craving pancakes and needed to fix her make-up before she ventured out.

Stood under the cover of darkness outside the hotel Daniel watched a lot of the wrestlers enter the hotel in a steady stream, "Your time will come but that time is not right now." He walked a little further from the entrance so that he wasn't so visible if anybody turned and looked. He just had to bide his time until there were less people around and then the number would be his.


	3. Chapter 3

It took her almost ten minutes to fix her make-up as she was so tired but she managed to fix it so the bruise was hidden and so she didn't look like a hooker. Once she was done she slid her room key into her purse along with her phone before she put it over her shoulder and headed out to satisfy her craving for pancakes.

He was beginning to get irritated by the wrestlers that had just gone into the hotel now coming back out again, he needed to get in there before she went to sleep dammit. Daniel was just about to lose his cool when he spotted her walking out of the hotel alone, "Wow, you couldn't have made it any easier for me could you?"

Stephanie had spotted the IHOP when they were on their way to the hotel so she knew that it was really close and was easy to get to on foot. As she walked along the street her attention was on the road watching the cars as they sped past her when she became aware of a presence behind her. She didn't want to jump to conclusions and assume that they were following her specifically as there were a couple of bars not much further from the IHOP so they may have been on their way there but she was on her guard and more aware of her surroundings right now.

He was just walking into the hotel as a couple of guys walked out, "New guy. We're all going to the bar called 'The Star', you should come and join us."

"Sure. I'll just drop this stuff off in my room and then I'll be there." Once he had his key he made his way up to his room and dropped his bag on the bed rifling through it in search of his cologne. As soon as he found it he sprayed some lightly onto his skin incase he met any nice ladies before he dropped it back in his bag and threw it onto the floor.

He turned to look at himself in the mirror and decided to change his shirt because what he was currently wearing could attract the wrong kind of attention. He swapped his band shirt for a plain black one, he then made sure that he had his cell phone and some money in his wallet before he headed out for a few drinks to get to know his new colleagues.

There was nobody around and there was the entrance to an industrial area next so Daniel made his move, speeding up his walk he draped his arm arm around her shoulders, "Long time no see Stephanie."

She could sense him getting closer and she didn't like it at all as it made her nervous but she didn't want to look just incase it was something bad. When he draped his arm around her shoulder she immediately screamed and tried to pull away but he quickly grabbed her arm pulling her back as she pulled away and put his other hand over her mouth.

When she screamed he panicked and put his hand over her mouth as he pulled her back to him, "There's no need to be like that, we had such a nice time on Friday and I just want to talk to you."

Twisting and turning she tried to pull away from him as he tried to push her wherever he wanted to take her. As a last resort she bit down on his hand and was relieved when he removed it, "Get the fuck off me will you?"

"I can't Stephanie, not until you give me Nikki's number. You can give it to me in private here and nobody needs to know that we were ever together." He slammed her back against the metal railing surrounding the industrial area, "So what is the number?"

As her back and head hit the railings some of the wind was knocked out of her and her sensitive head had her seeing a few stars. She didn't want him to win though, he was not going get that number but she was going to have to do something about him, somehow. She waited until her head stopped spinning preparing herself to have to run for it, "Go to hell Daniel, I am not giving it to you." Pushing him as hard as she could she went to run past him but he just grabbed hold of her.

"You don't think you can get away that easily do you?" He practically threw her back against the railings sending her crumpling to the floor.

Sat on the floor she closed her eyes as she saw double of everything, she really needed to get her head checked out now. First, before she could get her head checked out, she needed to get the hell away from him. She slowly pushed herself back to her feet feeling the pain from her head down to her waist, "I think that if you don't want to end up in jail you need to let me go."

The sheer absurdity of her expecting him to let her go without him getting the number made him laugh, "You haven't given me her number yet."

"Are you stupid? You actually seem like the stupidest person that I have ever met."

He was not impressed so he stepped closer and ran his hand down the side of her face, "Your face is so pretty, I would hate to have to mess it up."

She gulped and shrank back scared of what he was going to do to her, "Daniel you really don't have to be like this. Nikki already has a boyfriend an . . " She didn't get to finish talking because she was crumpled on the floor clutching her ribs after he had kneed her.

"I warned you that I wasn't going to play around now."

She slowly tried to push herself back up to her feet but fell back down with a scream as he kicked her in the ribs again, "You will be staying there until you give me her number."

He had looked up the directions on how to get to the bar before he left but it looked like he had gone wrong somewhere as he should be in front of the bar but he couldn't see it anywhere. Did he go left or right? It was so confusing so he decided to try looking at directions from where he was, sadly he didn't know where he was. If he got closer to whatever the buildings were ahead he could see the name and then get some from here. As he moved closer he could hear a commotion, rolling his eyes he really didn't care what was going on tonight, or he didn't until he heard a scream, "What the hell is it about me?"

He quickly weighed up his options but as he got closer the decision was made for him as he heard another scream. Running towards where the scream sounded like it came from he didn't think and literally tackled the guy that was stood up to the floor. As he looked down at the guy that was currently pinned beneath his body he groaned, "You again?" If it was the same guy it couldn't be the same woman . . . could it? Almost reluctantly he turned his head to look behind him to see and what he saw broke his heart, fisting his hand in the guy's hair he climbed off him and pulled him towards her but not close enough that the guy could touch her but he could reach her.

Stephanie knew that she needed to move and get out of there but the pain in her entire body meant any movement made it scream in pain. The second she felt a hand on her shoulder she screamed and jerked away, she didn't know why the beating had stopped but apparently it was just a pause and he was back.

Stood watching a woman scream and jerk away from his touch made his blood boil and made it so hard for him not to beat this guy to a pulp, "See what you did to her asshole?" He threw the guy to the floor and pulled off his belt, he was not going to let this guy get away and quickly tied his hands behind his back with the belt, "If you dare move I will beat you up myself."

Now the abuser couldn't move he had to check on the woman so he slowly knelt down beside her again, "I don't know if you'll remember me but we met a few nights ago, are you okay?"

She recognised his voice immediately, how was he even here? Slowly raising her head to look at him to make sure that he wasn't about to hurt her too she then started to push herself up, "I'm . . ." She hissed as the pain shot through her body at the small movement, ". . . fine."

When somebody hissed as they moved they were not fine, this could not go on as next time she would be dead. Reaching into his back pocket he pulled out his phone, "Do you need an ambulance when I call the cops?"

Instantly she panicked, "You can't call them." She scrambled to stand up to get away but with so much pain in her body it hurt and her movements were erratic and he easily got hold of her. She stiffened as she expected some sort of hit she was surprised when he simply helped her to stand up, "I'll be okay, he . . ." She closed her eyes as breathing became difficult after speaking, ". . . he'll stay away."

"But he won't, he is clearly following you wherever you go. I don't know who you are but please, for the sake of your life you need to let me do this."

The tears streamed down her face as the realisation hit her that she was going to have to do this, "No EMT's."

He didn't realise that he had been holding his breath until he couldn't breathe so he exhaled, "Thank you." Roughly yanking the abuser against the railings he called '911' thanking the heavens for there being a sign outside the industrial area they were in front of as he requested an immediate Police presence. Once he was off the phone he stepped closer to the woman, "Would you like to sit down to wait?"

"I would like to forget this past week ever happened but that's not going to happen."

The sarcasm wasn't really a surprising response but as he saw some more tears falling down her cheeks he stepped forward and gently wiped them away with his thumbs. At the same time he was wiping away her tears he was wiping away her make-up slowly exposing her black eye, "Please tell me this black eye isn't from this shit."

Her hands came up to push his away but instead he gripped her wrists and held them against his chest, "Tell me please, you could also tell me your name too."

"Yes . . . Stephanie."

"My name is Paul." As he finished looking her over he looked over to the guy quickly, "How did he end up dating somebody as beautiful as you?"

Luckily his grip on her wrists was loose so when she pulled on them they were easily freed allowing her to use her arms for support to lean against the railings, "It was a blind date, it was the worst decision I have ever made." When she heard a siren in the distance she immediately began to wonder how she was going to explain any of this to her Dad, "I can't do this."

At the same time as she was having second thoughts Daniel who had taken advantage of the attention not being on him to move away quickly tried to scramble away but he was swiftly kicked in the ass which sent him sprawling on the floor eating concrete.

"You can do this, you have to do it for your safety."

She didn't know why she did it but as she saw the Police car turning the corner she slipped her hand into the stranger's and gripped it tightly.

The grip she had on his hand was bone crushingly strong but it was worth it if she was going to put the piece of shit in jail, "It'll be okay. I should have asked if you wanted me to call somebody for you?"

"NO! Nobody can know."

He eyed her warily as she said that nobody could know, her family and friends wouldn't react that badly right? It wasn't the time or the place to ask questions though, "Okay okay, it was only a suggestion."

She didn't know how she was stood up right now, she was in so much pain and it all hurt so the sooner she could sit on something that wasn't as low as the floor she would be happy.

"Somebody here called us?"

Paul raised his hand, "That would be me. The guy currently laying face down on the floor has beaten up this lady at least twice that I know of and there is an element of stalking involved as once was in New York and now here."

The Police looked between the three people not even sure where to start as there were so many questions, "Is this true Ma'am?"

Without thinking Stephanie went to nod her head but immediately hissed and grabbed at her neck as the pain shot through her head and body, "Yes."

She watched as they removed the belt from around Daniel's wrists and replaced it with handcuffs, she just had to now make a statement and pray that she could keep this a secret from her family. She was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't realise that Paul was trying to remove his hand from her grip until he gently tapped her shoulder causing her to scream and jerk away in fright.

He felt so guilty scaring her, he wanted so badly to wrap his arms around her and to protect her but he couldn't, "I'm sorry, they want to talk to use separately so I needed my hand."

"Oh." Looking down at the floor she felt stupid and guilty, "Sorry."

"It's okay, I kin . . ." Trailing off as soon as he realised what he was saying, flirting right now was a terrible idea so instead he just followed the one cop so they were separated from Stephanie.

As soon as they were alone the remaining cop looked at her sympathetically, "Would you like to sit down or anything?"

Yes she would like to sit down but not right here so she wished people would stop asking her that. More than that though she just didn't want to do this right now, she need a shower, a lot of painkillers and some sleep, "What are the chances of me being able to give a statement, I assume that is what you want, in the morning? Technically it would be a couple of hours from now but it just wouldn't be right now."

"We could do that, I would need some details of what happened before you leave though."

Her shoulders fell in defeat realising she had to go through some of it now anyway, "Fine. Friday night we went out on a blind date in New York, he didn't want to date me he just wanted the phone number of a colleague so I walked out. He chased after me, yanked me into an alley and proceeded to grab me and then punched me so hard I hit my head hard on the floor as I tried to leave. He pinned me to the ground but before he could do anything a stranger knocked him off me and allowed me to escape. I'm here for work tonight, he has followed me here and tried for the number and beat me up. Is this enough yet?"

He was hastily scribbling it all down on a pad so took a moment to raise his head to look at her, "Can I get your name and contact details please? Just so we can contact you to follow this up to get a full statement."

It took everything she had to suppress a groan but she managed it, "I leave town again tomorrow with work so was hoping to come to the station before I leave."

"That works but can I still get your name and number please?"

All but snatching the pad and pen from his hand she hastily wrote her name and cell number down and shoved it back at him, "Now can I leave?"

Flustered by her insistence on leaving as he had never dealt with anybody like that before, "Uh . . . sure. When you get to the station in the morning just say you are there to make an official statement and somebody will handle it."

"Thanks, bye." Fighting through the pain she walked off as fast as she could manage turning left as she reached the street and leant against a wall fighting for breath. There were two options open to her right now, go to IHOP for her pancakes or call a cab and go back to the hotel. She rationalised that the cab would take a while to come so decided to get her pancakes anyway, maybe comfort food would make her feel better.

He gave his statement, it took way too long for his liking so he was relieved when it was done. Now that he was free to go he figured he would wait with Stephanie until she got a cab but as he looked around he saw that she wasn't around, "Where did she go?"

The cop shrugged his shoulder, "I don't know. She was in a rush to leave and said that she'd give a full statement in the morning before she left town for work so I let her leave. Why? You're not stalking her are you?"

That was the stupidest question he had heard all day, "No. I was just going to make sure she got back to a hotel or home or whatever safely but as long as she's already gotten there then that's okay. Have fun with that shit, he's such a pleasant human being." As he walked past the cop car on his way out he stuck his middle finger up at Daniel for the hell of it laughing at the way he hit the window with his handcuffs, he was right where he belonged to be.

Just before he reached the street he turned back to the cops, "You don't happen to know where 'The Star' is do you please?"

"Go right to the end of the road and then turn left and take the next road, it's just down there on the right."

He felt so stupid that he was just one road over, "Thanks." He definitely needed a drink or two now, hopefully the guys were still there and wouldn't think that he blew them off as he could do with a distraction too.

She sank into the booth at IHOP relieved to finally be sat down. Right now she didn't care that she probably looked an absolute mess, she just wanted to drown her sorrows in junk food and not think about how she was going to manage to work tomorrow.


	4. Chapter 4

Stephanie had set her alarm for an hour earlier than it should be but she had a meeting with the Police station. It took her a while to get out of bed but when she eventually got out of bed she groaned as every small movement hurt.

She made her way the short distance into the bathroom immediately rifling through her cosmetic bag looking for the painkillers. It was only when she couldn't find them did she remember that they were beside the bed with some water as she had taken some the night before. Groaning as she made her way back to the bedroom her head was really not going to save her legs right now. As soon as she had taken the painkillers she made her way back to the bathroom and stripped down to get into the shower.

When she was in the shower it was hard to do everything, especially raise her arms to wash her hair, but she managed it all however when was washing her body the pain began to make more sense when she saw a massive purple bruise. Carefully raising her arm she looked at as much of her waist as she could and it was covered in this purple bruise, she didn't stop the tears from falling at the realisation of exactly how badly she was hurt.

After she finished crying she finished off her shower before she slowly climbed out and then carefully dried her body.

With a towel wrapped around her waist she began to go through her suitcase looking for the right thing to wear. She needed to wear something that wasn't too tight but she also needed to make sure that her side was covered at all times and there was no chance that anybody would see anything. Eventually settling on a dress that was not overly tight she pulled that out of the case and dropped it onto the bed, she knew that she was going to struggle with the zip but it would have to do as it was the best option she had right now.

One hour later and she was stood in front of the local Police station with all of her luggage, this was the last place she wanted to be but Paul's words were going around in her head about her needing to do it and she knew that he was right. Slowly walking inside she made her way straight to the counter, "I'm here to make a statement after an assault last night."

"So you want to make a complaint?"

She was in too much pain and too tired to deal with incompetence, "No, I want to make a full statement after the person was arrested. Not to be rude but I really don't have time to waste so if you could hurry up please."

"Please take a seat and I will investigate."

She dragged her luggage over to the side and took a seat, she was glad that she told her Dad that she would make her own way to the next city because she wasn't going to be able to meet him at this rate.

Unsure of how long she had been sitting there she was just about to give up and walk out when the same officer from last night appeared in front of her, "You're early."

She would raise her head to look at him properly and be polite but that would definitely hurt too much, "I should be at work in Chicago by lunchtime at the latest so I don't have time to hang around. Can we please just get this over with?"

"Sure, follow me and we will get this done."

It was the longest hour of Stephanie's life as she recounted every single detail of Friday night and the previous night. As soon as she finished and had signed her statement she got ready to leave, "So I can leave now right?"

The cop looked sheepish as he could tell how hard it had been for her and how desperate she was to leave, "I need one more thing before you leave. The DA is going to need proof of injuries to go along with the statements, I don't suppose you went to the ER did you?"

Her shoulders fell, she didn't even think about the fact that they might need this, "No, I haven't seen a Doctor at all. My job involves me being around athletes and I have seen them concussed and I know the symptoms so I assumed that I had a concussion on Friday when I hit my head, it hasn't been confirmed by anybody though."

He could tell by the look on her face that this was an incredibly painful subject for her but after sitting through her accounts of what had happened he was desperate to put this guy away. They didn't have long to hold him and he needed some proof now, "Could you see a Doctor today?"

"I work with a Doctor but I'm not getting them involved, I'm miles from home so can't see my own and I definitely don't have time to go to the ER. The earliest opportunity I will have to see a Doctor is tomorrow, if they can fit me in."

Tapping his pen on the desk he tried to think of a way around it, "Do you have any visible injuries?"

Her eyebrow raised and she shook her head, "You mean apart from the black eye covered by make-up and the giant purple bruise on my side?"

It was like his Christmas and birthday had come at once, "Could you wipe the make-up off and take your dress off so I could photograph the bruises please?" Realising how that had come across he was eager to set the record straight, "I mean so I can put some evidence in the case file and maybe we could use it to charge him and then add the medical report after, once you are able to see a Doctor so that they can write one."

With a heavy sigh she carefully picked up her bag and found her make-up bag retrieving the wipes to remove her make-up. Slowly wiping her face clean she hoped that he was proud of himself making her do this as she didn't like how she looked right now. Once the black eye could clearly be seen she dropped the wipe into her bag, "Like this?"

"Yes, that's great thanks." Using his cell phone he took a picture of her eye, "So about that bruise . . ."

Stephanie contemplated what to say about it as she was not comfortable stripping down to her lingerie, "I'm sorry but there is no way that I can get my dress off. The closest you'll get to seeing it is if it goes around my back, if you're willing to pull the zip down and then back up for me."

Slowly standing up he felt bad hearing her talk about not being able to do the simple task of pulling up a zip, "I'll try. Can I just move your hair so I don't catch it please? I'm clumsy."

A laugh started to pass her lips but she quickly subdued it as the pain began, "That's fine."

The cop stepped closer to her and moved her hair over her one shoulder before he pulled the zip on her dress down. As the zip got lower exposing more of her skin he was so grateful that she couldn't see his face as he couldn't mask the shock, "This will be great, thank you."

She could feel his hand pulling back the one side of her dress slightly and it made her nervous, did the bruise really go that far around her body? As soon as he had pulled the zip back up she turned to face him, "I need to ask this but how far around did the bruise go please?"

The papers on the desk became very interesting as he shuffled them about putting them in a neat pile with his pen and phone, "Oh not far."

Why was it that she didn't believe him? Oh yeah, it was because he was so obviously lying through his teeth, "Bullshit. Show me or I'm withdrawing it all."

There was no way he could let her do that so he reluctantly picked his phone up and found the picture in his gallery, "I didn't think you'd like the truth."

He was right, she didn't like the truth because as she looked at the picture and saw that most of her back was covered in various coloured bruises it made her feel sick, "Thanks. Where is there a bathroom that I can use to do my make-up again please?"

"Let me show you." He led her down the corridor to a female bathroom, "You can use this. I will be around to show you out."

Entering the bathroom with her luggage trailing behind her she leant on the counter looking at herself in the mirror, her body was literally a mess, it was all of the colours of the rainbow and it hurt to move and she hated herself. Somehow she had to go from here to work and get through the day without anybody finding out the truth, she was definitely not looking forward to that.

He walked into work and the first words that anybody said to him were, "Vince wants to see you." As if his week could get any worse he now had to go and see the boss and find how what he had done wrong.

As much as he tried to prolong the inevitable he had to face him so he decided to just get it over with and knocked on the door. Stood patiently outside he waited until he heard the unmistakeable bellow from inside inviting him in and pushed the door open.

"Paul, thank you for coming."

It was hard not to be sceptical when your boss was so enthusiastic about your presence, "Uh, you're welcome. So why is it that you wanted to see me?"

Despite the other man's hesitancy Vince remained upbeat about it, "I have come up with the most amazing storyline for your introduction, I genuinely feel like I have outdone myself this time."

Sat in the corner of the room Shane shook his head at his Father, "You have been telling me this all morning but you refuse to tell me what it is so do you care to expand?"

His son was going to find out when his daughter found out as his son would only ruin the surprise for his daughter by teasing her, "Not to you I don't, not until your sister arrives."

"Whenever that will be."

Paul had never met the mythical daughter, he actually didn't even know that she existed until this moment, "You have a daughter? I didn't know this."

Vince couldn't help but smile at the younger man at the mention of his daughter, "She has been keeping an incredibly low profile around here lately just learning about the business and staying out of trouble, unlike her brother. She should be here soon, she said that she had been held up so would make her own way here but she won't miss this. Whilst we wait for her why don't you take a seat in my chair and have a read of the script that I have prepared and see what you think."

As he sat down in the chair he was surprised when it was immediately swung around so he was facing away from everything else in the room before the script was place in his hands, "There you go."

Shane didn't understand why this idea was a secret and how it involved his sister. He knew that there had been talk of her appearing on television but he didn't think that it had gone beyond just general mentions. The last thing he wanted was for his baby sister to be put in harms way and the way his Dad was acting he was pretty sure she was about to get beaten up in a storyline.

When she eventually arrived at the arena she was so late that her Dad was bound to rip her a new one. She didn't even bother dropping her luggage off in the makeshift office she always had, she just went straight to his office and knocked on the door.

The second that there was a knock at the door Vince jumped up from where he had perched on the edge of the desk and moved to stand behind his office chair, "Come in."

Slowly turning the handle she pushed the door open but was surprised by the look on her Father's face, he didn't look angry at all, "Sorry, I'm late."

It didn't matter that she was late as this worked out so perfectly for him, "That's okay. Come in I have somebody I want you to meet."

She let the door fall closed behind her and ignoring the pain in her body she put her luggage against the wall, "Okay, who are they?"

Vince spun the chair that Paul was sitting in around, "Stephanie I would like to meet your husband Paul."

He was in the middle of the script when the daughter who was apparently going to be his wife entered but he didn't pay any attention to her as he read about his relationship with this 'Stephanie'. As his boss turned his chair around he was interested to meet this woman but as his eyes settled on the same woman that he was with last night after she had gotten beaten up he couldn't do anything but stare at her.

Husband? Paul? What was he talking about? As her eyes settled on the man sat in the chair the word 'husband' didn't matter any more as she immediately recognised his face and knew that she was in trouble, "Holy shit."


	5. Chapter 5

If his Dad's idea wasn't so crazy Shane would be laughing at the look on his sister's face and her reaction. The tension in the room currently could be cut with a knife so he decided to try and break it, "So, um, since when was Stephanie having an arranged marriage? This is the first I have heard of it."

Vince laughed and rolled his eyes at his son, "It's not real Shane, it will be her first real storyline on television. What I have planned out so far is that Stephanie and Paul here will get married in secret and both of them will make an appearance in about a fortnight to introduce themselves and to announce it."

He was still confused how this would work as that made little to no sense, "Uh . . . so they're just going to turn up married? This sounds oh so totally epic." He punctuated the sarcasm in his tone with a roll of the eyes.

"No no no, it won't be like that at all. My initial idea is that their marriage will be a surprise to us, we will not know that she is married or that he even exists. When they turn up Stephanie will explain that she is doing this to make a statement and to introduce herself to the world seeing as I am too ashamed of her and want to keep her hidden."

The more he listened to his Father talk the more he was liking the idea, "That doesn't actually sound half bad, it might actually work out."

Throughout the conversation Stephanie hadn't taken her eyes off Paul, she didn't know if she could trust him to keep his mouth shut or if he was about to spill all of the beans to her family.

As Paul looked into his future 'wife's' eyes he could see the fear in them, he knew that she was worried that he was going to say something. All he wanted to do was to reassure her that her secret was safe with him. If she wanted to keep it from her family then that was her business, he wasn't about to start telling her what she should do, especially when it involved his boss. Putting the unfinished script back on the desk he stood up, "I am going to leave you to it, I am sure that you have a lot to do before the show."

"Before you leave Paul, I have arranged a photo shoot for the two of you for this afternoon to get the ball rolling on this."

He barely knew this woman and as far as his boss was aware he hadn't actually ever said two words to her and now they were being thrust into a photo shoot together, this was going to be so much fun, "What time?"

Quickly shuffling a couple of papers about on his desk he finally found what he was looking for, "Three."

Three o'clock did not give him time for anything, "I'll be there." Now he had to pretend like he had never seen Stephanie before, "It was nice to meet you I guess. I look forward to getting to know you."

"Same. I'll see you later I guess Paul." When the door closed behind him she turned to look at her Dad, "Are you crazy? You give us less than two weeks notice of our storyline when we have never met each other before and you don't even know if we'll work together."

He didn't quite understand why she was so resistant to this as she had been the one who had practically begged him to allow her on television, "So you want to be on television but you don't want a storyline?"

She shouldn't have snapped at him but the painkillers were wearing off and she was afraid of what Paul would say to him, "I want to be in a storyline, I just want it to work and I don't want to be a laughing stock."

His daughter's reaction made sense now and he understood her fear but he knew what he was doing. Walking over to her he put his hands on her shoulders failing to notice the way that her body tensed, "That is what the photo shoot is for though, apart from it being for promotional purposes it will give us an opportunity to see your chemistry together in front of a camera."

"Oh. I guess that makes sense. I don't have any idea what my character is supposed to be like or what she is supposed to wear though."

He took hold of his daughter's hands and led her over to his chair, "Sit down and I'll explain it to you and then you can read the script."

She braced herself on the arms of the chair before she slowly lowered herself down, "I'm waiting."

He couldn't help but shake his head at how impatient she was, "Wardrobe have been given instructions to go and buy you something to wear for the shoot but basically you'll be slightly slutty but not all tits and ass hanging out slutty. I have left the hair and make-up to the professionals but I have said that you're going kind of wild child and they said they'll work off that. All you have to do at two is turn up, put the clothes on and let them to the work. Talking of work I have some to do so read the script and then come and join us."

Stephanie breathed a sigh of relief when her Father and brother both left, if she wasn't in so much pain she would actually lay her head down on the desk. Why did this all have to happen now when she was barely functioning? It was like the universe was working against her throwing her together with the man who had twice saved her and she didn't know how to feel about it, him working for the company did explain why he was able to save her the previous night though. Reluctantly she picked up the script to read through to see what was expected of her.

Before she knew it it was two o'clock and she was walking into wardrobe, "I have been told that you would have my clothes for me please."

"Ah yes. I sourced these very last minute this morning so I'm not sure if this is what your Dad is looking for but I thought it would be a safe place to start."

She couldn't help but stare at the clothes as they were put into her hands, it didn't seem like it was a dress and that made her nervous, "It isn't a crop top is it?"

The sheer fright on the other woman's face made her feel guilty, "No no, definitely not. I would never choose really short mini skirts or crop tops for anybody without having spoken to them first. What you have there is a pair of leather trousers and a scoop neck top."

Scoop neck? Fuck, what if it was low at the back and there were visible marks from last night? There was only one way that she was going to get to find out and that was to try the clothes on, "Thanks. I'll go and put these on and then get my hair and make-up done."

It took her almost ten minutes but eventually she had managed to get changed, she didn't have any shoes to put on so she'd have to go back to her luggage to get some once she was ready. When she had initially put the top on she had panicked as she thought that it was low at the back but luckily it was high so she was sure that she would be okay and that it would cover any marks on her spine. So distracted was she by her thoughts of potential marks on her back that she didn't hear her name being called and screamed in fright when somebody tapped her arm.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. I was calling your name but you seemed like you were on another planet. Do you want to take a seat and I'll start your hair? I thought I'd go with wild curls as you're meant to be like the wild child."

She smiled sheepishly, "You're not the first person to scare me this week so I'm sorry. Curls sound good, it gives you a certain wild look if done in the right way. I am at your mercy so do as you will as you probably know more about my character than I do."

There was a bright and cheerful laugh as she was led over to get her hair done and whilst it was being curled her make-up was done.

With ten minutes to spare she was able to make her way back to the locker room to retrieve some boots to go with her outfit. It hurt to put them on and do them up but when she managed it she had to quickly make her way back for the shoot before her Dad threw a fit. Racing through the halls was incredibly painful but when she saw Paul casually walking she slowed her pace, "Why aren't you in a hurry?"

Now he had a chance to talk to her, it was a shame that he couldn't ask the one question he was desperate to get answer to, "Because we still have a few minutes and then we'll spend ten minutes waiting whilst the photographer sets up so we won't be holding anybody up. Nice look by the way."

Was that a serious compliment? Was he being sarcastic? Why would he be complimenting her anyway? Her brain was actually starting to physically hurt the more that she thought about it, "It wasn't my choice, I was just given the clothes to wear and I just sat there whilst they did my hair and make-up."

He didn't know what to say to her, nothing that he could think of was going to come out right so he settled for walking with her in silence.

Things were awkward between them now, she had made them awkward but she didn't know what to say or how to make it up to him. She was almost relieved to see her Dad stood there looking like he was about to explode with anger, "Sorry, I had to go and get some shoes to go with the outfit."

"Whatever. Come on and get in here so that we can get these pictures and see what sort of chemistry you have together."

Looking over at Paul she rolled her eyes and mouthed 'sorry', the poor guy was stuck working with her and then he had to deal with her Dad too.

She was beautiful before she got all dressed up and she was even more beautiful now, he had the absolute best job in the world where he got to work with her. Paul smiled sympathetically at her as they walked into the studio as her Dad began barking orders at the photographer, "Is he always like this?"

Instinct took over and she immediately stepped closer to him, "Sometimes he's worse, sometimes he's not as bad, you know it depends on the day."

"You have my sympathies."

The laugh that escaped her lips earned her a glare from her Father and some throbbing in her ribs, "Fuck. I really need some stronger painkillers."

Suddenly from across the room Vince was shouting at them, "Get over here you two and get in position."

The painkillers were beginning to have little effect on her body and she was feeling like he expected her to be psychic, "What position? Seriously Vince we need some guidance here."

Paul could sense that things were about to go south and they hadn't even started the shoot yet so he just slid his hand to hold hers and led her over to stand in front of the camera, "Are we good here?"

Finally the photographer felt like he could do his job, "You're in the right position but I need you to act like you're newly married so just relax and be a little more touchy feely than holding hands."

Stephanie hadn't even realised that they were still holding hands and now she was embarrassed so quickly jerked her hand from his, "Sorry."

"More touching, more looking at each other, just try it."

She felt so self conscious with her Dad stood staring at them, she didn't want to let him down but she didn't know how to do this well and properly.

He needed to get her to loosen up so he gently pulled her closer to him, "Stand in front of me and let me wrap my arms around you."

Moving to stand in front of him she said a silent prayer that he wouldn't squeeze her ribs as he looped his hands around her waist resting his hands on her stomach."

"Get a little closer, move her hair and put your heads together."

He followed instructions moving her hair to the one side of her and noticed bruises at the top of the back, where the hell had they come from? It took for her to lean back slightly against his chest for him to break free of his trance like state to rest his head against hers.

They stood there for fifteen minutes taking pictures with Stephanie and Paul gradually getting more relaxed and moving into different positions, "One small break and then we'll finish off with you chest to chest okay?"

The break was exactly what she needed right now, being so close to him was way too comfortable, it was part of the job and nothing more. She was broken out of her thoughts when the make-up lady appeared in front of her with brush in hand to touch up her make-up, "So how come the make-up around your eye is a little thick? I meant to ask earlier but it was a little busy."

Oh shit, what was she meant to say? Desperately trying to come up with a plausible excuse she suddenly remembered what Shane had said, "I haven't been sleeping well, I had to cover the black bags."

The last thing she could do was call her out for the bullshit she was clearly talking as she was her boss' daughter and that could get her fired so she settled for silently doing her work.

Stephanie was relieved when she was called back onto the set, "Finally I want you to be chest to chest and touchy feely. You've had a chance to relax around each other so see what you can manage."

"Touchy feely like kissing or just like hugging?"

Her head snapped to the side and she immediately regretted it as tears sprang to her eyes clouding her vision at the movement. Why had he just asked about kissing? Did he want to kiss her? He was meant to be her husband though so inevitably kissing would be involved but she didn't think it would happen within half a day of meeting. Her entire attention was on the photographer's answer, "It's up to you. I'm not going to give instructions, I just want the two of you to focus on each other and let me take the pictures."

Internally she was panicking, this could be her only chance at a storyline if she didn't do this properly and she didn't want to let her Dad down. She couldn't help but bite down on her lip as she turned to face him and waited for him to make the first move as she was too scared to.

When he turned to look at her Paul couldn't help but think how beautiful she looked, she looked so vulnerable but not in a fragile way, and he just thought that she was simply beautiful. He couldn't stop himself from lifting his hand and stroking his chin with his thumb, "No lip biting."

She had to resist the urge to poke her tongue out at him but she released her lip from beneath her teeth anyway, "Better?"

He felt so pathetic and like he was beginning to act like a lovesick puppy but it was just happening, "Maybe."

There was something really intense about the way that he was looking at her, she had never had somebody look at her like that before so she hid her face in his chest, "Don't look at me like that."

"Like what? I'm just being polite and looking into your eyes as we talk. We should pose."

Yeah pose, they needed to pose. She ignored the pain in her body and wrapped her arm around his waist leaning in to him a little.

They changed positions a couple of times until they were actually chest to chest. Paul leant his forehead against Stephanie's. They were meant to be acting like a newly married couple and considering neither had been married they were winging it, "Do you want to kiss?"

She couldn't help but blush and hide her face in his chest again. It was such a weird question and knowing that at least her Father and possibly her brother were around watching along with a photographer made her more shy.

Paul was fully aware that the photographer was taking pictures so he made sure to hold her close but not tightly, he also kissed the top of her head and then rested his cheek there gently rubbing her back to relax her. All of a sudden from across the room Vince bellowed, "Kiss, the two of you need to kiss."

Frightened by her Father as she was so wrapped up in Paul Stephanie jumped and jerked away quickly grabbing at her shirt pulling it down as he caught his hand in it pulling it up a little.

He felt guilty that she was scared but his main concern was the bruise he briefly saw on her body. He had no idea that she was in such rough shape, he knew that she wasn't great but that looked big and painful, he just wasn't sure exactly how big it was. Paul knew he had to get his head away from thoughts of her and back to his job, "Why do we need to kiss? I thought it was only if we were comfortable."

"I need to see if the two of you can kiss on command in front of a camera and make it believable."

Stephanie brushed her shirt down effectively wiping her clammy hands on it before she stepped closer to her 'husband' again, "Let's just do this."

When he looked at her she didn't exactly look comfortable so wasn't selling the idea of a kiss to him but if it was what his boss wanted then he would kiss this strange but incredibly beautiful woman. He reached out to her placing his hands on her hips and pulling her a little closer, "Are you sure?"

If she was sure she would have jumped right in and would not be having all of these conflicting thoughts about it, she wasn't sure why she was so conflicted though. So caught up in her thoughts she didn't realise that he was moving his face closer to hers until he pressed a kiss to the tip of her nose, "You're not with me are you?"

Why did he have to be so sweet about it all? In her dreams he would be forceful and would not allow her to think about it and talk herself out of it which was what she was beginning to do. If she was healthy she would shake her head to rid herself of her fears, but as her hands came to rest on his chest knowing what they had to do her thoughts turned from her fears to how firm his chest was. Maybe him being her husband wouldn't be so bad after all if she got to touch him like this more often.

Her silence was a little unnerving but as he studied her eyes there were all sorts of things flickering behind her eyes and he couldn't place any of them. Much to his relief none of them appeared to be fear, "Can I please just kiss you before your Dad kills me with the looks that he is giving me?"

Sliding her hands up over his shoulders she looped them around his neck ignoring the stabbing pains in her side, "I'd like that." Wait, did she really just say that? Well that was about the most unprofessional thing she could possibly say.

He ignored her comments and tilted his head to the side a little pressing his lips against hers gently. It took a moment for Stephanie to relax into the kiss but when she did she returned the kiss tickling the back of his neck with her fingertips.

The two of them kissed for a minute before they pulled back both looking a little shy. Stephanie was the first of them to speak, "Are we done?"

Vince could see that his daughter was uncomfortable so he would have to tackle her later once he spoke to the photographer, "Yes you are done. Thank you to you both and I will call for you once I have had chance to talk with the photographer so you are both dismissed."

She practically ran off, well as fast as she could manage anyway. She enjoyed that kiss a lot more than she professionally should and it frightened her, especially after Friday, so she needed to clear her head.

Paul could only stand there watching her as she ran off, "Was it something I said?"

He had watched his sister's behaviour and it was just getting weirder, something was going on but she refused to tell him what it was and it was bothering him now. The last thing he needed was for their Dad to be alerted to her acting strangely so he forced a laugh, "Nah, she's always like that."

"Oh I see. I'm going to go and do something productive so I will see you later."

Shane watched the other man walking off, why was he acting strange too? What exactly was in the water around here? Unfortunately for him he couldn't go after either of them as he was quickly assigned the job of photographer's assistant so his Dad could get on with stuff for the show and he was stuck sitting around waiting for the pictures to be ready for him to see.

The second that she entered her locker room Stephanie went for her bag to retrieve some painkillers and quickly took two. It was the painkillers making her brain do funny things, that was it, it was nothing to do with her actually liking Paul . . . right?


	6. Chapter 6

When the show ended Stephanie had made her way back to her locker room and was just about to collapse into a seat when the door burst open, "Steph, Dad wants to see you right now."

It was such perfect timing that her Dad had. She sighed heavily and abandoned sitting down, "I swear this had better be good."

Shane felt sorry for his sister as she looked so tired. He draped his arm around her shoulders and led her out of her locker room and to find their Dad.

They took a seat on the couch in Vince's empty office and waited, "Apparently him saying that he needed to see you right now was 'right now sometime this year'. I'm sorry Steph."

As she attempted to relax back in the cushions on the couch she tried to relieve the aching throughout her body, "It is typical Dad though, his idea and our idea of 'right now' are not and will not ever be the same."

Their conversation was cut short by a knock at the door, "Just typical, he makes ten appointments for the same time."

Unable to stop himself he laughed at his sister's dramatics, "We were here first so don't worry." He turned his attention to the door, "Come in."

Paul didn't immediately recognise the voice that came out of the office so he poked his head inside the door but stepped inside and smiled when he saw Stephanie, "He called for you too huh?"

"Uh huh. You may as well take a seat, this could take a while."

He made himself comfortable on one of the other seats in the room, "Any ideas what he wants? It can't be good can it?"

Suddenly the door burst open and Vince walked in, "Oh good, you're both here. I had a look at the pictures you took earlier."

"And?"

He ignored his daughter and tried to find the pictures on his desk, as soon as he had found them he held them out to Paul, "If you have a look at these you can tell that you have some chemistry. The two of you need to get to know each other better to have some more trust in each other to grow the chemistry. You have two weeks to get more comfortable with each other so I'd suggest you go out to dinner tonight and meet up a lot."

Turning to look at her Paul felt pushed into a corner as he didn't have to be Einstein to see that she was tired and would rather be in bed, "Do you care to have dinner with me? I promise I won't make it a long night."

She forced a smile, she knew that if she said she was too tired then she would get a lecture from her Dad so if she just agreed then things would be so much easier, "Sure. I have a few things left to do here but then we can leave."

"Why don't you two go out to dinner and I'll do your work Steph."

She turned in her seat to look at her brother, "Really Shane? You will do that for me."

"Of course I will." She looked tired still and as a protective older brother he wanted what was best for her and the sooner she got out of there the sooner she could get to bed, but that would be alone.

When she looked at her watch and then looked at her brother she couldn't help but smile, "You are the best big brother ever."

He leaned over and hugged her tightly missing the hiss of pain that left her lips as he squeezed at her ribs, "That's what a brother does for his sister."

Paul stood up from his seat, "So I'll grab my bag and then I'll come back for you and we'll swing by and get your stuff and leave."

Vince waited until the younger man had left the room before he turned to his children, "Well it's nice to see the two of you getting along and Paul being good to you also. I have work to do so just make sure you arrive on time tomorrow."

"Sure Dad, night." It didn't surprise her when he was out of the door without saying another word, "Thank you for doing this for me Shane."

"It's okay Steph. You look tired and I know that Dad would hit the roof if you said no to going out because you are tired. Just make sure that he takes care of you and doesn't keep you out."

She smiled softly, "Don't worry, I am confident that I will be in bed nice and early." Slowly getting up from the couch when the door opened and Paul reappeared she was ready to leave.

The two of them walked in silence back to her locker room to get her bag which Paul promptly picked up which she was grateful for, "Thank you."

"You're welcome. So what would you like to do for dinner? We can go to a restaurant or we could grab take out and eat somewhere or we could just order room service at the hotel."

So many options on how to get food, "I kind of really fancy some pizza but I don't really feel like being in public, I feel like I look like a mess."

"I don't think you look like a mess at all." Well those words left his lips before he engaged his brain, hopefully she wouldn't notice what he said though.

Stephanie had heard what he had said but paid no attention to it as he was just trying to make her feel better, "Thank you I guess. So what shall we do for dinner?"

If she didn't want to be in public the last thing he was going to do was force it on her so they could compromise, "We could grab some pizza and take it back to your hotel room if you want? I don't mean that to sound creepy." They barely knew each other so he had to be careful.

"I know, you don't have a creepy bone in your body. Pizza and then back to my room sounds good though, thank you."

He shrugged his shoulders as they reached his rental and he pulled out his cars to unlock it, "Not a problem."

It took them nearly half an hour but eventually they were stood outside of her hotel room with pizza box in hand. It had taken some flirting with the front desk girl but they had been allowed to bring the pizza to the room as long as they promised not to make a mess. Sliding the key card into the slot she waited for the light to turn green before she pushed the door open, "Drop the bag wherever you like and make yourself at home."

Paul placed the bags in the corner of the room before he took a seat on the couch, "This is actually better than a restaurant, it is so much more relaxed."

Carefully she kicked off her shoes and shrugged off her jacket before she took a seat beside him on the couch, "Yes it is. It is more intimate too and there are no interruptions, unless my brother decides to come and check up on me."

"Or me."

She laughed but quickly regretted it and clutched at her ribs but disguised it by ignoring the pain and bending forward to scratch her leg, "I'm sure he will trust you, the same can't be said about his feelings for me though."

He shrugged off his jacket and dropped it on the floor beside the couch, "I'm sure he does trust you, he is a protective older brother though and probably just smothers you out of love."

"I wish he would show his love another way. Enough about his ugly mug though, I thought we were meant to be getting to know each other."

With a smirk on his face he threw open the top of the pizza box and pulled out a slice whilst trying to ignore his gut telling him to be protective so that he didn't smother her, "I could ask you a thousand questions about yourself but would we ever truly know what we need to know about each other to grow the chemistry?"

She couldn't help but watch him as he took a bite of the pizza, "Why are you eating pizza? I thought wrestlers didn't eat junk food?"

"I can have cheat days if I want them, well technically I do have them and I have decided that tonight will be it as pizza with you sounded good."

Taking her own slice of pizza out of the box she took a bite and chewed on it slowly, "Are you sucking up to me for any particular reason?"

He shifted on the couch resting his arm across the back of it, "I was just being honest, I hadn't even thought about sucking up to you."

The two of them ate most of the pizza in silence and when they were done she tossed the box onto the floor beside the couch, "That was exactly what I needed today and it was delicious so it was a win/win."

"I'm glad that you enjoyed it, I quite enjoyed it too. So tell me something interesting about you."

She shifted on the couch turning to look at him whilst resting her arm on the back of the couch absently stroking his forearm with her fingers, "When I was growing up I used to be my brother's wrestling dummy, he used to practice all of the wrestling moves on me. If you weren't wrestling what would you be doing?"

The feel of her fingers on his arm was sending shivers up and down his spine making him feel like the world's biggest creep. He tried to ignore the way she was making him feel and focus on the conversation and getting to know her better, "I'd probably be working in a gym or body-building. Have you always wanted to be in the family business?"

"Pretty much yes. My parents always said that I would need a College education before they would let me join properly but during the holidays I would work throughout the company earning some money."

The light in the room was dim and as he tucked his leg beneath him and turned to face her he couldn't get over how beautiful she was. Being around her and now getting to know her was making him think that being 'married' would be an extreme version of torture, how could he pretend to be married and not want to date her? As he studied her face he was struck by a question, "So how come I have never met you before? I have been around the shows for a few weeks and have literally never seen you. I would remember you if I had, I never forget a beautiful face."

It was almost like he was flirting with her but that wouldn't happen when she looked like this, or ever if her dating experience was anything to go by. A sigh escaped her lips as she began to wallow in her own misery with her brain telling her how invisible she must be for him to miss her, "I was around, it's easy to miss me amongst the Divas though, they're some of the most beautiful women in the world."

He didn't know what came over him as he shuffled a little closer to her and gripped her hand in his, "And that is why you're going to be on TV, because you are beautiful."

Stephanie didn't even know why his words angered her so much but she got up from her place on the couch and went over to her suitcase, bending over she ignored the way that her body screamed in pain and quickly unzipped it and pulled out her make-up bag and stormed off into the bathroom all but slamming the door shut behind her.

Sat there staring at the now closed bathroom door he didn't know what he had said. Paul got up from the couch and slowly made his way to the bathroom, he was unsure if she was going to come out and hit him for whatever he said wrong.

She stood in front of the mirror staring at her reflection, she shouldn't be mad at him because it wasn't his fault that she felt like shit about herself, he was just going to get the brunt of her anger though and she couldn't stop herself.

With her make-up bag in front of her she opened it and pulled out the wipes to clean the make-up off, if he wanted to say she was beautiful he could see how she really looked.

Stood outside of the bathroom he knocked gently on the door, "Stephanie? Are you okay in there?" Silence, all he received was silence so he knocked again when suddenly the door was pulled open and she stormed out again.

Brushing past him as he stood outside of the door she ignored the pain in her body and made her way back into the room before she spun around to face him again, "Do you still think I'm beautiful now?"

He took slow and tentative steps towards her staring at the black eye that she still had as a result of Friday, "Yes, I actually really do think that you are beautiful, black eye and all." As he stepped close enough that she could probably feel his breath on her face, he raised his hand and stroked her cheek ever so gently so that he didn't hurt her, "Don't be mad at me because I think you are beautiful no matter what."

There was no other sound in the room than that of their heavy breathing, neither knew how or when they got to this point but both were afraid to make the first move.

The silence was broken by Stephanie's thoughts on herself, "I'm not beautiful, my body is a mess and I am ugly."

Paul walked behind her moving her hair so it was over her shoulder and took hold of the zipper on her dress slowly pulling it down to reveal the bruises that he had noticed earlier down her spine. His fingers ghosted down her spine over all of the bruises before his lips gently touched the bruise at the top of her back, "So beautiful."

The hairs on the back of her neck stood up and goosebumps broke out across her body as his lips touched her back, "Paul."

His hands slid up to her shoulders and his voice remained soft, "I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me."

She didn't know what had come over herself, she really liked the way his hands and lips felt on her body and she wanted more of it. Her hands moved to the neck of her dress and slowly pulled it down her arms letting it drop to the floor around her ankles.

As much as he wanted to be a gentleman his eyes wouldn't move from her back as she removed her dress. The second her dress dropped to the floor he gasped, her back and side were black and blue, "Steph, are you sure?"

There was something in the way that he spoke that set her nerves on edge and she was unable to face him, "You say that you think I'm beautiful but this is the real truth behind the make-up."

He hoped that wherever the guy who did this to her was that he was getting the beating of a lifetime. His fingers traced the outline of one of the bruises on her spine, "Let me show you how beautiful I think you are."

How they got to the point where she was only wearing lingerie and his fingers were all over her body was hazy but only because he was making her horny, "I'd like to see you try."

Moving his lips to her ears he loved the way that she smelt, "Is that your permission?"

A moan passed her lips as a shiver ran down her spine and she leant back into him, "Sure, you have my permission to attempt the impossible." What is the worst that he could do? It's not like she was half expecting him to beat her up or anything.

With permission granted he pressed a soft kiss to her jaw before his lips trailed down the side of her neck and around to her back. He gently gripped her hips as he began kissing down her spine making sure that he touched every single bruise as he lowered himself to his knees. His hands moved from her hips to run down her legs and back up them as he stared at the bruise on her side. Before he over thought what he was about to do he gripped her hips again and traced the outline of the bruise on her back with his tongue following it up by kissing back along the path that he had just made.

She wanted something to hold on to as he literally worshipped her body. Nobody had ever made her feel this good before and this wasn't even leading to sex, or at least she didn't think it was. As he continued his onslaught on her body she couldn't take it any longer, "I can't keep standing."

In an instant he was on his feet, "I would pick you up and place you on the bed if I didn't think that it would hurt you."

Her body felt cold as he stepped away from her, she wanted to pull him back to her but she wasn't one to put herself out there like that. She didn't know where this was going but she took a seat on the edge of the bed anyway.

His eyes drank her in as she sat on the edge of the bed attempting to cover her stomach, he wanted to fuck her so much. Closing the distance between them he gently pushed her shoulder, "Lay down for me beautiful."

Stephanie bit down on her lip as she slowly leaned back to lay on the bed. At this point she could no longer see him as moving her head tonight was incredibly painful so she had to trust him.

Bruises across her torso didn't take away from the inner beauty that shone out. As he perched himself on the bed beside her he trailed his fingers across the bruises before he bent down and pressed a few soft kisses to it.

When she gasped and squirmed slightly beneath the touch of his lips he grew bold and trailed some kisses down to her hip bone and then began to kiss along the top of her panties. He couldn't miss the way that her body grew progressively more tense so he stopped kissing her and sat up, "I'm sorry, I got carried away."

"I would move my head but it hurts. I'm not mad that you got carried away, I got carried away a long time ago."

Surprised by her admission he slid up the bed a little bit to look down at her resting his hand on her stomach gently, "What do you mean? What are you trying to tell me?"

Why did she not know what she was actually trying to say? Why was she finding it so hard to tell him what she wanted and see if he felt the same way? She inhaled deeply ignoring the pain in her ribs as a result of the action and moved her hand to rest on his as it lay on her stomach. In mind she had a plan of finding the courage to say something to him verbally but as her hand touched his she knew that she would never find the confidence to speak so took hold of his hand and slowly moved it lower.

His hand was so close that he could feel the heat radiating off her most intimate area. He was just about to touch her to feel how hot she really was when the silence of the room was broken by the ringing of a cell phone.

Desire coursed through her body and she wanted nothing more than for him to actually touch her body but when her phone began to ring she knew that she had to answer it. Reluctantly she moved from beneath his hand and padded across the room fishing her phone from her bag, "Hello?"

When she moved from beneath him he was helpless and could only sit there and watch her as she went off in search of her phone. The spell that has fallen over them had been broken and he was probably going to get kicked out of the room as soon as she ended her call.

Collapsing on the bed he laid back and stared at the ceiling listening to her call, "What?! . . . Oh . . . I see . . . So what does that mean? . . . Are you sure? . . . Well I guess that's a good thing . . . Thank you for everything, goodbye."

With a heavy sigh she ended the call and threw her phone back into her bag, she had just received some good news so why did she feel so bad about it? Stephanie took a deep breath before she turned around to see Paul sprawled out on the bed, his arms were beneath his head and his shirt had risen slightly exposing some of his toned stomach. The more she looked at his body the more she really wanted to touch him. Slowly and carefully she climbed onto the bed beside him biting down on her lip as she took the bold step of slipping her hand beneath his shirt touching his stomach.

He felt the bed dip beside him as she took a seat, now to wait for her to tell him to get lost. The last thing he had expected was to feel her hand on his stomach and now he didn't know what to do. His eyes slipped closed and his breathing deepened as her hand remained on his stomach.

The lack of reaction to her touching him unnerved her as she thought that he would at least look at her, "Has the moment been lost?"

His heart stopped at the thought that maybe the moment hadn't passed between them, "I thought it would have as you had to take the call. I thought you would have realised that you didn't want this or thought I was taking advantage of you."

Immediately being transported back to the call she removed her hand from his shirt and slowly lowered herself back to lie on the bed, "Apparently Daniel has been transferred to a mental health facility for assessment. They ended up speaking to Nikki after his interview and they found that she had lodged a complaint with the Police where she lives too so they thought it was in his best interest."

Rolling onto his side he placed his hand on her stomach again, "At least he is getting the help that he obviously needs. Now you just need to focus on you and getting better."

Tonight she didn't want to focus on her injuries, she just wanted to let go so she was going to. Her heart was racing as he didn't seem to find her repulsive as she was so maybe he would help her forget. Decision made she locked her eyes with his moving her hands to her breasts and cupped them letting her thumbs tease her nipples, "Mmm, so good."

As a groan of pleasure fell from her lips he felt a stirring in his groin and he tore his gaze from hers in search of what was so pleasurable. Upon seeing her playing with her breasts he moved on the bed swinging a leg over her hips straddling her body being careful not to put any weight on her body, "You don't expect me to sit and watch do you?"

"Absolutely not, you are more than welcome to join in."

The fire in her eyes made him smile, "So I don't hurt you I am going to take your bra off now okay?"

The squeak of excitement that passed her lips was far from sexy in her mind but knowing that he was going to help her forget made her day. Once her bra was removed she relaxed onto the bed and closed her eyes expecting his hands on her breasts but when his lips touched them she moaned and slid her hands over his back and pulled him closer.

When he moved from her breasts and their lips connected he was feeling things that he had never felt before, he didn't know what it meant and at this moment he didn't care. He focussed his attention on making Stephanie feel incredible so that she forgot about the pain.

Her entire body was on fire and he was making her feel more incredible than she thought was possible but as he moved from the bed she ignored the pain and lifted her head to look at him. She opened her mouth to ask him where he was going but no words came out as he dropped his pants to the floor letting his hard cock spring free. Despite the pain at the bouncing of the bed she collapsed back, "Commando?"

Nudging her legs apart he climbed back onto the bed between them, "Got a problem with it?"

How she was managing to breathe when her chest felt so tight was a mystery but sliding her hands up and down his chest she tried to ignore the feeling, "Not at all."

Being with her felt like the most natural thing on the planet so as he lined himself up with her entrance and looked into her eyes he didn't feel like he needed to ask but he wanted to, "Are you sure?"

"I'm sure and ready." And the truth was that she really was both of those things, he was no longer a way to forget, he made her feel things that she had never felt before and this felt so right.

Carefully wrapping one of her legs around his waist he slid into her and hissed as every part of her clutched him tightly, "Holy shit."

The pleasure that shot through her body as he entered her was like a painkiller and adrenaline wrapped into one, she no longer felt any pain so moved her body with his as they built up a rhythm together.

Neither knew how long they had been connected so deeply but eventually his thrusts got harder and faster as he got closer to the edge, "Nearly there."

Out of nowhere her orgasm hit her and she screamed in pleasure but he didn't stop moving, "Oh shit." The more he moved the closer she got to a second orgasm and soon she was burying her face in his shoulder biting down gently as she came again triggering his release also.

He collapsed on top of her but kept all of his weight on his knees and arms leaving some space between their bodies as he pressed gentle kisses to her neck, "You okay?"

Despite what she had experienced with Daniel this felt right and she didn't want to lose it, "Hmm, don't leave."

Slowly pulling out of her he lay down beside her and draped one leg over her and rested his head on her shoulder holding her as tightly as he dared, "I'm staying."

After everything over the past twenty four hours the exhaustion was taking over but she held onto his arm as it rested over her waist, "We should do this again some time."

He couldn't help but laugh and lift his head to press a kiss to her lips, "I couldn't agree more." As he rested his head back on her shoulder he couldn't help but muse out loud, "Maybe being married won't be so bad after all." It was only when she didn't reply that he realised that she had fallen asleep on him. Shifting slightly he closed his eyes to go to sleep, it didn't matter that she was the boss' daughter and they were going to work together, if he had any say in it she was going to be his girlfriend too.


End file.
